Known strangers
by Buffy Anne Halliwell
Summary: A One Shot, about why Paige decided to look for her biological family and why she felt drawn to Prue's funeral.


_Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed... duh. Enjoy :)_

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Paige just lost her parents a couple of days ago, and a few hours ago she was at their funeral. She locked herself in her room after the funeral, downstairs her house was full of her parents' family and friends, once in a while knocking on her door asking if she was okay, if she needed something, "I just want to be alone," she thought. She was tired, her body ached from the scrapes and bruises she got from rolling over the pavement, but above all she was hurt that the last thing she did with her parents was fight, just as they had been doing for months.

There was another knock on her door, she couldn't stand someone asking her for the hundredth time if she was okay, wasn't it obvious that she wasn't? Tired of the situation she climbed down her window, as she's done it many times before to escape from her parents, but the only difference tonight was that instead of running away from them, she escaped to be with them. The teen ran, as if running would ease her overwhelmed mind. She kept running until she reached a mausoleum in the graveyard, she kneeled and cried in front of two shinny new plaques, with her parents's names on each.

"Why did you leave me!" She sobbed and hit the plaques with her fists, "I hate you!" she said crying harder, repeating it over and over until the feeling of hate changed to regret; regret for being such a bad daughter to them, for screaming that they weren't her real parents, for causing the look full of pain her parents got when she screamed that. For that night she didn't care for the rest of the world, she just wanted to stay there, it didn't matter to her that she was lying on the cold floor of the mausoleum, she just wanted to be with them.

With the thought of wanting to join her parents, Paige wandered around the next days, she dropped school, she lost contact with her foster family, her path of self destruction began.

She left her home and started to shoplift and steal money at any chance, the money she stole was always used to buy alcohol, her body had nothing but alcohol in it, she liked living in that dazed state of mind.

Time went by, Paige was a mess and she didn't care, she wasn't sure of how long it had been since her parents deaths, she relied on her only escape, drinking until the world faded; that changed when one random day she crossed paths with a young black haired woman around her 20's.

Said black haired woman, saw Paige sat on a bench, half empty bottle next to her, the woman didn't know why but she felt the need to help that girl even thought she was a stranger.

"Are you okay?" the woman asked, she received only a muffled babble as a response.

"I'm Prue, what's your name?" she tried a different approach, but again she received a groan. Prue thought about walking away, she didn't have to help a drunken stranger, it was not as if that was the first drunk person she's ever seen on the streets; but something told her not to leave that girl in that state.

Prue took the bottle from the girl's hand, with this the girl reacted, "no!" she exclaimed and tightened her hold on the crystal bottle and tried to push the stranger away.

"Shh, it's ok! I'm not going to hurt you," Prue told her as she held her gently, the girl after a few struggles relaxed in Prue's arms.

They stayed that way for some minutes until Prue decided to do something more than stroke the stranger's hair.

"Come on, you can't stay here," Prue said and stood up, she placed Paige's arm around her shoulders to help her walk, Paige wasn't walking much, she was mostly being dragged to Prue's jeep parked a couple of blocks away.

Prue drove in silence, silently hoping that the girl wouldn't throw up inside the vehicle, she glanced at her and saw her sleeping peacefully, her features showing pain in spite of the youth. Finally she parked in front of her building, she shared an apartment with her middle sister, both were attending college.

Prue helped Paige got into her apartment and gently placed her on the couch.

"What am I doing?" Prue asked herself, she would had never thought of let a stranger into her place, let alone drag her.

"Piper?" Prue called, but no one answered, she went to the kitchen to get a glass of water for her 'guest' and there she found a note on the fridge, it was from Piper letting her know that she would stay at their gram's house that night.

Prue went back to the living room, holding a glass of water, she sat next to Paige and made her drink. Paige awoke a brief moment and then closed her eyes again, she took a couple of sips and Prue helped her lie down.

The next morning Paige opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was the intense headache, the second thing she noticed was that she wasn't cold, with an effort she sat down and looked at her surroundings, she didn't recognize the place and she had no idea how she got there.

"Hello," came a soft voice behind her, Paige turned around scared.

"Who are you?" Paige asked, "where am I?" she wondered with some panic, she was used to wake up alone and even on the street, but being at someone else's place made her uneasy.

"Is ok, you're safe… I'm Prudence… you can call me Prue," the elder woman said with a gentle smile.

"Paige," she replied looking like a little lost girl instead of a rebel teenager.

The morning went by calm, Prue made sure Paige had something to eat, at first the younger didn't want to accept, but finally her hunger took over, she didn't realize how hungry she was until she started to eat. Prue watched amuzed, Paige reminded her Phoebe, her youngest sister, a lot. Phoebe used to eat all rushed like that when she was up to something and wanted to get out of the house fast.

"Thanks" Paige said softly after she finished her breakfast, at first she didn't want to eat because of the nausea but what Prue gave her helped her with the hang over.

"Now this," Prue handed her a cup of strong coffee.

"I don't drink coffee," Paige said but took the offered cup anyway.

"It'll make you feel better, trust me," Prue said.

Paige drank, for an unknown reason she believed she could indeed trust Prue, she felt safe there with her.

"What can be so bad to get someone as young as you in this state?" Prue asked barely above a whisper, she didn't realize she spoke her thoughts until Paige answered.

"My parents died…" Paige wasn't the kind of person who spoke her problems but she had a feeling that this would help her, "in an accident, and I feel guilty, for causing the accident and for hating them for dying," she said staring into space.

Prue felt the need to hug and comfort her, but Paige turned around to hide her teary eyes, Prue understood Paige needed her inner space.

"I try to feel better repeating myself that they weren't my real parents," Paige said with a humorless chuckle, "but the thing is, they were, and they were the best, foster or not… they were my family."

"I lost my mom too, when me and my sisters where kids."

"At least you have sisters."

"Well, maybe you do too, you mentioned you had foster parents… maybe you have brothers and sisters somewhere, you just need to find them," Prue said hoping to give Paige some hope to anything, so far she had only seen despair in Paige's eyes.

"Hi, I'm Paige Matthews, you got rid of me but I'm here anyway," Paige said sarcastically, "I don't think so."

"Give it a try, it won't hurt, and besides, you'll always be welcome here."

"Thanks," Paige said, smiling for the first time since her parents' death.

Prue got a call from her sister Piper, telling her that their grandmother was sick, Paige took the cue to leave.

After that encounter, Paige stopped drinking, she promised Prue she wouldn't get drunk again and even that she didn't know her well, she didn't want to disappoint her.

She went back home and let her family know she was okay. With the insurance her parents left her she was able to roll into college where she got accepted for an essay she wrote about her parents' departure.

Paige, all rolled up in her new life, went to the apartment where Prue took her months ago, she wanted to let Prue know that she took her advice and started to look for their birth family. But when she got to the apartment someone else opened the door, that person told Paige that Prue and her sister had moved out from there, but didn't know where.

Time later, she finally found a name after a lot of research, Patricia Halliwell was the name of whom she suspected was her mother, with more research she found out that she had passed away years ago and that put an end to her search, she also found out that Patty had three girls, and for a while she thought about meeting them, but she wasn't sure how to approach, so she decided to let the matter to fate, if she was meant to meet her half sisters, time would tell.

She graduated college and became a social worker, at some point inspired by Prue and how she helped a lot a complete stranger.

One day, Paige was at her work at South Bay Social Services, she was in the middle of her routine when suddenly out of nowhere a newspaper fell to the floor in front of her, she picked it up and one name in the obituary section caught her attention, Prudence Halliwell; reading at the name, flashes of Prue helping her when she needed the most came rushing to her mind, and the last name Halliwell overwhelmed her with the results of her research, she wondered if this was about the same person.

Full of determination she left the office and headed to where the funeral was going to be held, if it was because it really was that same Prue, or because she might had been related to the Halliwell sisters, either way she had to be there… she needed to be there.

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_And the end. I hope you liked this short story._


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